Huixianlou was once a large foreign-related hotel in minzu road, Yuzhong District, Chongqing. It lasted for 27 years from its completion and operation in 1982 to its demolition by blasting in 2009. The Queen’s Restaurant belongs to the Catering Department of Huixianlou Hotel. Although it is affiliated, its origin is much deeper than that of the hotel.
Minzu road in the 1930s.
The Queen’s Restaurant was founded in the late 1930s. Its boss was Xu Zhongwu, the detective captain of Chongqing Police Department and the uncle of the Red Gang. It was located at No.216, minzu road at that time. It was mainly engaged in European and American cuisines and famous dishes from all over the world. There was also a music teahouse and a sunken dance floor, which was luxurious and fashionable. It was also called Queen’s Grand Restaurant and Queen’s Music Restaurant.
Xu Zhongwu graduated from the fifth phase of Whampoa Military Academy. With the special background of military and political circles and social gangs, the Queen’s Restaurant became a famous dining and entertainment place as the capital. Many important banquets were held here, and wedding banquets from all walks of life were even more endless. In April 1940, the grand wedding of filmmakers Wei Heling and Yuan Rong caused quite a stir.
On the eve of Chongqing’s liberation, Xu Zhong fled with five volumes of money, and the Queen’s restaurant was raised by some employees to maintain its operation. In December, 1949, Liu Bocheng, Deng Xiaoping, Wu Yuzhang and others convened a symposium of Chongqing social leaders and industrial and commercial representatives, and hosted a banquet in the Queen’s Restaurant after the meeting. At the beginning of next year, the restaurant was taken over by the government.
Sichuan dish famous dish roasted fish wings
In 1952, the Queen’s Restaurant was operated by Chongqing Cooperative Union, renamed as Cooperative No.1 Restaurant. Three years later, it was operated by the Catering Service Company of Chongqing No.2 Commercial Bureau, and expanded and renamed as minzu road Restaurant. Since then, the Queen’s Restaurant has officially changed from focusing on Chinese and Western meals to focusing on authentic Sichuan cuisine and Sichuan snacks, and also running famous Chinese and Western restaurants.
Minzu road Restaurant has a grand layout, including front, back, south and north main halls, which can accommodate 1,200 people at the same time. It is fully equipped, taking the lead in realizing mechanization and steaming in Chongqing’s catering industry. In addition, it specially invented an electric conveyor device as a food delivery appliance between the kitchen and the hall, which was incorporated into the national promotion materials by the Ministry of Commerce.
In 1957, Sichuan Osmunda had a bumper harvest, and Chengdu, Chongqing and Zigong established Osmunda canteens to study the diversified eating methods of Osmunda. In August of that year, minzu road Restaurant held a 50-day exhibition of duck, goose, rabbit and sweet potato products in eight regions and three cities in the province, and invited famous chefs from all regions to exchange views and discuss, exhibiting thousands of varieties. In the difficult period of three years, the restaurant built a Chlorella production site and made Chlorella steamed buns, Chlorella soup and other substitute foods, leaving a deep impression on the times.
Photo taken by the exhibition staff of sweet potato products.
Minzu road Restaurant is most proud of its superb Sichuan chefs who have been in charge of cooking here successively, and their authentic Sichuan cuisine cooked by hand. The leaders are Yu Yuexian, Liao Qingting, Wu Yuncheng, He Yuzhu, Fan Qingyun and later Xu Yuanming, Li Xinguo and Dong Weiren, who have decades of cooking experience and are good at traditional Sichuan dishes.
Liao Qingting entered the restaurant as a chef in 1956. In his early years, he studied under Du Xiaotian, the owner of Zhongshilou, a master of Sichuan cuisine in Chongqing. In the middle of the Republic of China, he founded Xiaodongtian, a famous Sichuan cuisine shop with Fan Qingyun. His specialties were rice smoked chicken, vinegar-preserved chicken, fish in soup, shredded beef with minced garlic and duck with bean sprouts. His disciples were Xiao Qingyun, Fan Shugui, Ni Mingzhong, Qiu Shifu and Ding Ying.
Wu Yuncheng used to be the master of Taolechun, a famous restaurant in Chongqing, and he was proficient in both red and white cases. The famous dish woolen chicken is his masterpiece. This dish is made by cutting chicken leg into squares and throwing dry powder, frying it in a pan until golden brown, and then adding seasoning and auxiliary materials. It is rich in color, tender and soft, hence the name.
Sichuan dish jar meat
In addition to famous chefs, minzu road Restaurant also gathered a group of famous waiters, among whom Wang Keqin, Feng Chunfu, He Meihong and Zhou Rongjun are all elites in the catering service industry. Wang Keqin, a Shanghainese, was a famous Chinese and western food host in the early Queen’s Restaurant, and his high-ranking foot, He Meihong, was the deputy director of the dining department of Huixianlou later.
In 1960, dozens of dishes in minzu road restaurant, such as barbecued pork crisp square, baked pig’s head with bean dregs, half-soup fish, stir-fried beef shreds, jar meat, vinegar-preserved chicken, crispy duck, hot-nest chicken with ginger sauce, sliced hibiscus chicken, whole duck with eight treasures, roasted mushrooms and fried in rose pot, were successively accepted as famous dishes in China by the Ministry of Commerce.
In September, 1982, Huixianlou Hotel, which had been built for eight years, rose from the original site of minzu road Restaurant, and its new number was No.186, minzu road. The total height of the building is 54 meters, with one basement and fourteen floors above ground. There are accommodation, shopping malls, restaurants, dance halls, photography centers, hairdressing rooms, bathrooms, hanging gardens and other facilities, and the third floor is the Queen’s Restaurant.
Old photo of Huixianlou Hotel
The new Queen’s restaurant not only retains the extraordinary style of the old Queen’s restaurant and the combination of Chinese and Western styles, but also inherits the traditional classics and authentic Sichuan style of minzu road restaurant. The styles of famous shops, famous teachers and famous dishes have been continued, and the restaurant has been warmly sought after by diners once it opened. As a foreign-related restaurant, there are many foreign guests.
A new batch of famous teachers and dishes gathered in Huixianlou again. On the basis of the original varieties, Xu Dezhang, Ding Yingjie, Zhang Helin, He Yuzhu, Zhang Shiwei and Xu Jin worked together to cook proud as a peacock, barbecued whole fish with pork, dried fish wings, exquisite fish crisp, fish belly with flowers, smoked spareribs, boiled gourds, kung pao waist pieces, preserved chicken in vinegar, yipin paws, and crispy fish.
Proud as a peacock in Sichuan cuisine is a craft dish, in which the peacock’s head is carved with radish, the back feather is decorated with sea cucumber, the color screen is made of paste made of chicken, fish and egg white, and the feather feather made of tendon and shark’s fin is decorated with fresh seasonal vegetables, which is pleasing to the eye and enjoyable.
Old photos of Huixianlou Queen Restaurant
In October 1982, almost simultaneously with the opening of Huixianlou in Chongqing, Huixianlou Sichuan Restaurant, a joint venture between Sichuan Food Service Company and Sichuan Garden in the United States, cut the ribbon in Washington. Zhang Guodong and Wu Haiyun, the famous Sichuan chefs, are the head chefs respectively. The Huixianlou version of "Sichuan-style Man-Han Banquet" was launched by two Chinese and American stores, which not only made Huixianlou famous at home and abroad, but also made foreign diners feel the charm of traditional Chinese food.
In the late 1980s, the consumer market changed, the high-end consumption cooled down, the official consumption decreased, and the business was stretched. Under the leadership of two managers, Hu Boqun and Chen Nan, Huixian Building began to change: carrying out subletting contract, improving internal and external facilities, increasing the services of booking food, booking tickets, calling beds and calling cars on behalf of customers, adding music bars, and increasing sales promotion and advertising in shopping malls …
Sichuan cuisine Linglong fish Cui
The Queen’s restaurant also began to change, lowering the consumption threshold accordingly, introducing a four-dish, one-soup work package and an economical snack package, adding more than a dozen cheap dishes such as Gongbao eel flower and slobbered fish and loach, and rebuilding a new hot pot city in the second year, which stabilized the business volume and increased a lot of new passengers. After many efforts, the operating income of Huixianlou entered the top 50 hotels in China in 1990.
On the morning of October 22, 2009, the Huixian Building, which stood for 27 years, was demolished by blasting with a loud noise.
Sichuan style snacks packages
Original title: Disappeared Sichuan Famous Restaurant, Chongqing "Huixianlou Queen Restaurant"
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